eDriving, U.S. Driving Safety Leader, Makes Multiple Global Acquisitions

OAKLAND, Calif., March 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- eDriving, the leading provider of online driver education in the U.S. with more than 10 million customers to date, has acquired Interactive Driving Systems, a renowned global provider of fleet driver safety management solutions through its Virtual Risk Manager® (VRM) platform.  Concurrently, eDriving acquired Mentor eData, a consumer-focused telematics app and analytics provider.  The combined companies form the leading driver training and risk reduction business with a mission of training consumer and professional drivers to be the best and safest they can be and evolving crash-free operating cultures for corporations worldwide. 

The impacted and addressable market is vast, given the critical nature and costs associated with driving for individuals, families, small businesses and major corporations.  The ability to draw on fast-emerging telematics, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) in constructing solutions creates an unparalleled and immediate opportunity for eDriving.  In the U.S. alone, there are nearly 30,000 fatal motor vehicle crashes annually and motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of teen deaths.[1]  The global value of the auto insurance market is expected to reach $821 billion by 2018.[2]  As technology quickly evolves and consumers and companies adjust to next-generation options, the global telematics market is expected to reach $45 billion by 2019.[3]

"These acquisitions fast-track our vision of offering a full suite of solutions that maximize road safety and constructively empower personal and professional drivers to better control what is happening when they are behind the wheel.  If you want safer family cars and lower fleet operating costs with more predictable insurance rates, you need sharper focus on the driver," said Celia Stokes, CEO of eDriving, who joined the company in early 2015 and paved the way for a significant expansion of the organization's focus and impact.

Mission — Size & Scope

The new eDriving enterprise, with over 430 employees worldwide, will immediately begin sharing assets and resources, including patents, data analytics, telematics data, technology development, websites, apps, subject matter experts, interactive content and video libraries.  Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed, but the combined company now has:

• More U.S. state approvals than any other company to provide online driver training and certification
• 1 million novice and driver improvement customers annually (consumer market)
• More than 700,000 fleet drivers in 97 countries, using courses in 45 languages
• Over 10 million unique visitors to websites
• A powerful telematics and analytics engine capable of operating as a turnkey offering as well as connecting to other telematics providers
• 200 driving instructors in a fleet of BMW Mini Coopers in key markets
• A blue-chip customer base including global Fortune 500 companies.

"It's an honor to be combining forces with a best-in-class provider in driver risk reduction strategies that has created meaningful, crash-free cultures for such an impressive set of worldwide corporate customers.  I have spoken with many of these customers and the value they place on ensuring their employee drivers return home safely to their loved ones every day is palpable and foundational — as is their reliance on and trust in Interactive Driving Systems," added Stokes.  "And Mentor eData's rigorous approach to using data to model driving behaviors enables us to fuel a different level of driver insight, training and effect.  Our three organizations share a thorough and engaging approach to driver improvement and risk reduction while our market reach and areas of core competency are entirely complementary.  This combination is game changing for the industry."

"We already have a pipeline of customers who see the combination of entities as greater than the sum of the parts and are ready to engage more deeply," commented Ed Dubens, the founder and CEO of Interactive Driving Systems who becomes Executive Vice President (EVP) of newly formed eDriving FLEET, LLC and will continue to drive all operations and strategy for the fleet business line.  "Driver safety is, indeed, poised for fundamental change."

Multiple Brands, New Telematics Team & Flagship Clients

eDriving will operate and integrate brands including DriversEd.com, I Drive Safely, Virtual Risk Manager®, eDriving FLEET, OneMoreSecond®, DriveInsight™, and DrivingBuddy™ and expects to launch multiple products in coming months. These products include a closed-loop, mobile-based virtual coaching product that is modeled after Interactive Driving System's popular, award-winning, flagship offering, Virtual Risk Manager (VRM).

Flagship Interactive Driving Systems' clients include Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, GSK, Cummins, Merck & Co., Zurich, BT, Royal Mail, Liberty Mutual and Roche. Many have won prestigious awards for improving safety outcomes while substantially reducing costs.

Steve Lakowske, founder and CEO of Mentor eData, will join as a senior executive in eDriving's telematics team and brings established customer relationships from the insurance and international mapping services markets.

Range of Offerings & Audiences

With these transactions, eDriving emerges as the only company providing a full suite of driver training solutions, including a closed-loop solution combining telematics, other driver inputs, interactive online content, and virtual coaching services with licensed instructors to improve driving behavior and lower risk.  For the first time, on a global scale, the following offerings will be available providing compelling choices for teenagers and their parents, adult drivers, contract drivers, corporations, regulatory agencies, insurance companies, telematics service providers and a myriad of other potential partners interested in the fast-changing driving ecosystem:

• Online, state-approved novice driver certification programs
• State-approved online traffic school
• Behind-the-wheel state-mandated driver training delivered by 200 experienced instructors in several states
• A full driver risk management program and platform for corporate customers
• A closed-loop, mobile, telematics-enabled virtual coaching offering for consumers, corporations and insurance partners
• Over 1,000 hours of online content and interactive coaching modules also available to partners on a standalone basis
• eDriving Certified^™: Driver safety certification programs for corporations and businesses seeking 3^rd party certification and endorsement of their employee or freelance drivers.

About eDriving

eDriving is the largest provider of online driver education in the regulated consumer driver training business with more than 1 million annual customers and 430 global employees. In addition to state-regulated online novice driver training and state-mandated driver improvement (a.k.a. traffic school), our focus is on helping drivers become smarter and safer behind the wheel in partnership with corporate (fleet) and insurance partners.  We are uniquely positioned at the convergence of effective e-learning content creation, telematics-based mobile apps, and solutions that help remediate personal driving behavior to improve safety and reduce insurance costs. Our mission is to offer a full suite of solutions that maximize road safety by putting both new and experienced drivers in better control of the right driving behaviors. 

About Interactive Driving Systems

Interactive Driving Systems is a global provider of Driver Safety Management Solutions. We work with our clients on shaping and influencing their drivers' attitudes and behavior toward safer travel. This is achieved through Virtual Risk Manager's (VRM) award-winning solution – Crash Free Culture®. VRM helps bring organizational policy to life, ensuring expectations are reinforced and understood across the entire organization.  Our primary goal is to help clients reduce driver incidents, collisions, license penalties/endorsements and injuries year over year.

About Mentor eData

Mentor eData develops application software that dramatically improves driving behavior for B2C and B2B customers. Our mobile app platform, DrivingBuddy, and analytics engine, DriveInsight, facilitate drivers' awareness of the implications of their driving behaviors relative to safety and risk. Our unique application architecture facilitates integration with other apps to tap into large existing app user bases and rapidly generate massive amounts of driving and other demographic data. We continuously refine and develop innovative analytics for DoD driver training, corporate fleets, insurance companies, driving schools, and consumer apps that reward good drivers and increase the competency and awareness of drivers of all ages.

[1] http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/state-by-state-overview and http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html

[2] http://www.finaccord.com/press-release_2015-global-motor-insurance-size-segmentation-forecast-for-the-worldwide-market.htm

[3] http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/automotive-telematics.asp

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SOURCE eDriving

Related Links

https://www.edriving.com